In many radio communication systems designed to service a large area, it is often desirable to provide a number of receivers, each positioned at a different location within the area to be serviced. Typically, the receivers, which may be base stations or repeaters, have overlapping effective reception ranges so that any messages transmitted within the area will be picked up by at least one receiver on the same frequency or channel. As an example of such a system, a communication unit transmits via a radio frequency (RF) communication resource a message that is received by three remote receivers. Each of the receivers sends its received signal to a comparator, also known as a voter, typically by wireline communications. The comparator receives and compares each message from each of the receivers and outputs a message that is comprised of either an entire message from one of the receivers or a composite message comprised of segments of the messages received from one or more of the receivers. Each message may be comprised of a plurality of message frames.
Today's systems only provide for a single console to participate in any conversation, thereby preventing a multiple-console conversations, and the resulting benefits of having geographically separated console buildings, including redundancy for backup and more console positions, are not possible.
In addition, comparators output messages to a variety of external devices through the comparator's output ports. Ports are generally physical link connections to the external devices. The external devices include base stations, consoles (and/or console interfaces), and audio switches. Comparators also have one or more inputs from one or more input devices, such as base stations, consoles (and/or console interfaces), and audio switches. The act of switching from one set of inputs and one set of outputs to a different set of inputs and a different set of outputs causes buffering and synchronization issues that are typically unresolved or resolved through adding very large, often prohibitive, amounts of buffering or memory.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus for and method of providing multiple-console conversations in a communication system and switching from one set of inputs and one set of outputs to a different set of inputs and a different set of outputs without creating buffering and synchronization issues.